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User blog:SsVivid/What I Learned From Campfire Q
Points displayed in brown are purely mod opinion or speculation, and are not actually to be taken as definitive canon because there's a chance they may be changed in the future or contradict content in the works by another mod. Elder Stuff Elder Gods * The elder gods are the source of magical power and by extension the source of divine power in the universe of RuneScape, so their nature is very vaguely similar to that of the ascendant gods. * The reason we have such mixed messages about whether or not an elder god can "die" (see: the definition of an elder god dying on the official wiki, versus Mah's crappy husk-like state) is because we're trying to apply very mortal terminology to something massively alien and powerful. More understanding of what exactly is going on can be expected in future content. * Elder energy and divination energy are two entirely different things. * We know Elder Gods can diminish/power down... which is actually what they do after their "eggs" are laid. It's emthing like returning to their source. * Elder gods are not inherently evil or moral. Mortal life are like ants to them, they really just aren't interested. This aligns them pretty naturally as true neutral creatures. * The Elder Gods don't really have a gender in the same way as humans do, but "she" is their preferred pronoun rather than "he" or "it". The same probably applies to Zaros and Seren as well - they might not have gender themselves, but when they observed mortal languages they would decide whether they wanted to be treated as male or female for the purposes of language. * The similarity between Elder God and TzHaar reproduction, and Mah and the Ga'al, is not a coincidence. *The elder gods created the elder gods. Elder Artifacts * The Measure was created by the previous cycle of elder gods. * Regarding our established definitions of "stonetoucher" and "false user": it's just Sliske's belief, but he thinks a false user is someone who has drawn power from the Stone of Jas, whereas a stonetoucher is just anyone who has touched the stone (or has only used it to draw knowledge). It's not exact, and there's probably some overlap. It likely just comes down to how annoyed the dragonkin are with you. * The Stone of Jas is not an egg from the last cycle. * Quin's horn and Marimbo's drinking horn are probably the same object. * The elder gods purposefully sacrificed some of the energy to create tools to more easily allow them (and future elder gods) to create worlds. Some made larger sacrifices than others. * The Kharid-ib is not the elder artifact located in the desert. * If someone were detecting elder artifacts, the Stone of Jas drowns out the presence of most other elder artefacts, and the Measure is weaksauce compared to the rest. Saradomin with his Crown might ''have noticed, but it wasn't enough to fully pique his interest. Elder Halls, Revisions * At the bottom of Floor 61 was the resting place of Zamorak, which was outside Gielinor (a form of dimensional rift). So, no, it would not be the quickest way to reach Gielinor's elder halls. * There was almost definitely a first cycle/revision. What it might have been like is another matter. * The placements of the Elder Gods' resting places on Gielinor is important. Ascendant Gods Guthix *Sliske was not working with Guthix and is not a guardian of Guthix. * Guthix had been in possession of the Stone of Jas for quite a lot of time; even if he wasn't directly using it, he did seemingly absorb some of it's power just by proximity. - So, simply close proximity to the Stone can alter a being, but we already knew that, didn't we? See: Moonclan. * As a result, Guthix was a uniquely powerful being who was willing to sacrifice some of his own divine power in order to ward the World Guardian against those who shared his divine nature. This had a larger effect on the ascendant gods, but acts as a small spanner in the works to Elder Gods. * Guthix used the anima mundi and his own power to create the barrier around the world that nullified god magic. That magic is very similar to the one used on the World Guardian. In a sense, the player is a pocket Gielinor! * Guthix also imparted some of his knowledge with that power, but what exactly will only become clear as and when it needs to be - e.g. things like just 'knowing' the names of things and elder artefacts on sight. There are a couple instances of this in Fate of the Gods. * Divination energy is Guthix's soul wisps. Zaros * Zaros is probably'' not powerful enough to repair the Elder Sword. * Zaros is composed of pure elder energy. * Zaros has a long history of being able to get others to do his bidding while allowing them to think they are acting of their own volition. This could well be what happened in TWW with respect to Azzanadra's actions. * Zaros actively dislikes when people are controlled by him just because of his loyalty-instilling power. It's a useful tool, but loyalty brought on by mystical means lacks the stability of true loyalty. Armadyl * Armadyl bashed Bandos's skull in because he'd just won the war and it was a bit of catharsis. Bandos was already dead, so it wasn't really a barbaric act. The boring answer is likely just as a way to clearly state that, yes, Bandos is really dead, not as any sort of character insight. * Armadyl only considers sentient followers that have chosen to follow him as his followers, so he would not consider birds his followers. * Armadyl's favorite color is flame red, the color of rebirth. * Armadyl united the Aviantese after ascending. * Armadyl did not ascend on purpose. * Armadyl has abandoned his blue/white/silver color scheme officially, now in favor of phoenix motifs. Saradomin * Saradomin is often both misunderstood and misinterpreted by the playerbase, particularly those who often attack him as a viciouos, wing-ripping, double-faced god. * The implication that Saradomin believes he is the "one true god" is largely enthusiastic PR on the part of his more over-zealous and less well-informed followers. He's obviously not the only god, and he recognizes that he's not perfect, and has made some terrible mistakes. He feels that the people of Gielinor would be safer under his protection. * As for his temper, that's just a personality trait. He's only human after all, but a wrathful nature is a dangerous quality in a god. Seren * Seren's not deceptive so much as private - she doesn't broadcast information about herself, and doesn't try to win non-elf converts. Zamorak * Zamorak wants power. He wants recognition and he wants to be the only remaining god. Yes, he wants to improve people through chaos, but it's his view of what an improvement is that will count. Menaphites * Apmeken and Marimbo have met and they got on fairly well. * Elidinis has left. She moved back in with her mum, metaphorically speaking. * Before exploding, Tumeken was a tier 5 god. After... we will learn more in the desert quest series. * Tumeken was not an Auspah. Other Gods *Skargaroth and Loarnab were likely both borne of long-dead races we have ever heard of. * The Idol of Many Heads is totem-esque and connected with pirate lore, so probably does not have anything to do with Loarnab. * Loarnab is so dead *Quit asking about Loarnab, okay? * It's very likely that Brassica ascended just by complete freak chance. ** It's possible that Brassica absorbed some of the energy radiating off of the Stone when it rested on Gielinor in combination with some of the anima mundi. Once he was linked with anima mundi, the cocktail ascended him. He has grown stronger over the years and was able to get around the edicts because he is so tightly tied to the anima mundi (which he calls deliciousness). Godhood *We can expect to see future content revealing more specifics about how to achieve godhood, whether Zaros/Seren can actually do it, and if they can, whether the rest of the gods can do it, too. * On the subject of gods having souls or not: 'Soul' can mean many things. Do they lose all vestige of their old race? No. Do they have give up on the right to travel to their race's afterlife? Very possibly. * Divination memories are a complex mesh of god energy and anima mundi * Gods utilize a completely different form of magic than mortals. God magic has different "DNA," so to speak. * Ascension does not work the same way for all deities all the time. However, reliably, becoming a god seems to make you "more." More of your essential nature - so, Tuska exemplifies the beast and thus became more of a beast. ** This is why Tuska didn't sprout sentience like Marimbo did. * The other gods are not able to simply detect ''Zaros's presence. Azzanadra only picked up on it because he was actively looking and Zaros specifically reached out to him. * On the subject of Ascension: ** At what point does it happen? There's a kind of step up in power that goes beyond mere magical power. It's a sliding scale though, not absolute. It does involve changing your fundamental nature though. ** At the point you can smite the people claiming you're not a god, you're a god. ** Becoming a god doesn't (usually) make you more intelligent. The Godless would probably have far less followers if that were the case... * The reason gods can't use mortal magic to affect the World Guardian (we know for a fact mortals can teleport the Player without our permission, so if the gods could use mortal magic, why would they bother asking our permission) is that, for gods, magic carries their fingerprints - they are the source of that magic. The player's World Guardian nature identifies that fingerprint. There is nothing a god can do about it. * Notice how gods are all distanced from their followers, even those who try and be close to them. They're alien, aloof, separate. I think this is why. I think when they first ascended, they could relate, they had tethers to their people by dint of family and loved ones. Then, their loved ones began to grow old, grew frail, died. This is hard enough with mortal families, where you see grandparents and parents age before you, it's heartbreaking and something none of us like to deal with. Now imagine if it were younger siblings, or your children, then your grandchildren...the impossibly young (from your frame of reference) becoming old...dying. You'd have such difficulty with this, because you would not be in the same boat. You cannot relate to aging, you cannot relate to death, you don't have a frame of reference for this and so the only way to deal with it is to not relate. This is the first distancing and it's a fundamental part of mortal nature. It is at this point that you realize you are no longer like them, you operate over aeons now, whilst they still cling to tomorrow. I imagine it's a heartbreaking thing to go through, but its a necessary step for people that need to start thinking about a species, rather than a family. Races Aviantese * While there aren't any Aviantese seen residing on the surface of Gielinor after the conclusion of B&tB, it's possible that there ''are ''still Aviantese, just in places we can't access at the moment. * Abbinah is built up of floating islands, on which some are populated with tribes. * Aviansie tribes stick to their islands for as long as possible, migrating as needed but preferring not to. * There are different tiers of aviansie tribes, each taking on certain roles that aid the greater race as a whole (this was not always so, but was the way after Armadyl's re-organisation of the aviansie). Those on the highest islands generally take on more scholarly pursuits, whilst those on the lower islands take more pragmatic approaches to things. Nominally they all work as a single greater whole, but there is some snobbery between them. * The different types of Aviansie spring from the differences in the tribes, though the different "breeds" have no merged back together with the tribes so that is less of a factor now. * The Aviantese have their own language. * The aviantese may have descended from birds and share certain traits, but they don't have an innate ability to speak to birds. * Aviansie crafting and smithing is particularly good. They might be willing to exchange knowledge, if only there was a skill coming out at some point that might be able to take advantage of this... * The aviansie create dishes unique to their tribe and the resources available on their islands. Likely a combination of meats from the various critters that live there and whatever edible plants grow there. The food is normally quite dry, because water is scarce on Abbinah. * Aviantese do, in fact, lay eggs. * Young aviansie do not have as fully developed wings as full grown aviansie, to accomodate for this and to allow for travel even with the young aviansie, they have a specially constructed device called an "aileron" that allows the young aviansie to glide along the "windpaths" of Abbinah, effectively giving them flight before they're old enough. * Aviansie parents normally attach their children to themselves via a tether which is tied around a belt or harness, so that the children cannot get lost. Demons * Demons are ''not ''demons as in the biblical creatures from Earth religion. They are a separate race that functions differently from the demons of theology. There is no hell from which "demons" originate, just another plane that is their homeworld. * Demons are also not pure evil, they're merely another faction of people; the Avernic just happen to be very chaotic. * Kal'Gerion demons are Infernals. * Fiends are from Infernus like the rest of the demons. Mahjarrat * Mahjarrat would not consider Moia (a half-) to be Mahjarrat. Zamorak might, though. * The race of the Mahjarrat is now officially "Dreams of Mah." Mahjarrat specifically are "Children of Mah." It's not official yet, but Chelon-Mah would be like "Beloved of Mah" and Mahserrat something similar. * Kharshai wants to unite the Mahjarrat back to older traditions, rather than preferring a new order. * Kharshai respects Azzanadra, and likely they have had heated theological debates. Ultimately, though, they are on separate sides of a divide, and Azz is likely too Zarosian to cross that divide. Conversely, Azz would also consider Kharshai lacking in realism. * Koschei subsisted entirely on tubs of whey to remain exquisitely ripped. Or at least chugged down tubs of whey for the look of the thing. Because Mahjarrat. Humans * The humans that Guthix took to Gielinor were one of the colonies of Teragard. ** When Guthix moved them, they had likely been away from Saradomin for long enough that their culture moved away from the worship of gods to something more specific to their world. * The expected livespan of Gielinorian humans is about the same as Earth humans on average. Or potentially, a little bit lower, since they lack Earth's technical advances. * Teragard is advanced ''now, but at the time when humans were brought to Gielinor, it might not have been. We also believe that humans as a species colonised a few worlds, and that Teragard was probably just the source of the race, so which humans came to Gielinor and from where is not yet defined in-game. Penguins * The penguins don't have a god. They certainly don't follow any of the main gods, though they would consider an alliance if they were approached. * The power of the penguin comes from their ingenuity. Never underestimate someone with a strong will and an ability to think well outside the box. * Penguins have never been involved in the god wars and probably won't get involved. * Penguins are Gielinor natives from the continent of Acheron. Elves * The Cadarn Clan led the elves' conquest of the lands beyond the mountains, and I imagine the Arandar Pass was built as part of that campaign. * (Mod Osborne says) "We know exactly who the elven Dark Lord is. I would suggest that it's unlikely to be Zaros or Zamorak." Miscellaneous * The spiders' word for the Spider Realm is their equivalent of 'the world'. Their society is feudal and hierarchical, with spider lords ruling huge webs that contain the webs of lesser spiders. A spider without a web of their own is a low-status outcast. None of this was previously defined; Mod John A just made it all up. * With the exception of the Dorgeshuun who were physically separated from the others, the goblin tribes have intermingled so much that they no longer really exist as separate entities. The descendants of the tribes that were sold to Saradomin and Zarmorak now worship Bandos. * Dragonkin are not the only surviving race from the previous cycle. * Angel is a colloquial term for the Icyene. * Chaos dwarves are the result of a Zamorakian curse that alters dwarves into creatures similar to dwarves. Magic and Prayer Necromancy and Resurrection * While it's not absolutely impossible, because there were so many of them and they've been dead a ''very ''long time, the possibility of Saradomin bringing back the Naragi with the Wand of Resurrection would be so difficult that it's ''effectively ''impossible. * If you want to resurrect someone who has died (not merely animate a corpse) when it comes to necromancy and the wand of resurrection, you require the soul of the original host. The soul usually doesn't hang around the body for very long (unless there's some unfinished business or impediment that keeps the spirit from moving onto the afterlife). Saradomin was in such a hurry to bring Sir Owen back because, even as a god, if the soul moved on to the afterlife it would have been forever lost to him. Life, Soul, and the Anima Mundi * Life in the universe comes into existence primarily by means of the anima mundi. "They were encouraged into existence by the anima mundi." * Souls are composed of anima, but not all anima is soul. * Anima is the fuel for magic, magic creates life, and life generates anima. Prayer * Prayer and prayer bonuses are less the response of a god, and more the response of the dead. However, this has been a topic of argument in-house for some time. * It's unclear where prayers do come from, but I think it's clear in the Sixth Age that they aren't actively granted by gods. It's more likely that they're natural abilities that anyone can access by getting into the correct mental state, and the people who first learned to use them got into that mental state by praying and so incorrectly assumed that the abilities were granted by their god. Miscellaneous * You can teleport out of Freneskae because the teleport somehow routes back through the World Gate, like call forwarding or something. Though the actual answer to this question is, "Look, it would have been obnoxious if you couldn't use teleports to get out, so just don't read into it." * The "rune essence" in runespan is not really the same stuff as rune essence on Gielinor; on Gielinor, essence is rock that was exposed to the Stone of Jas for a long time. This is not the case in runespan. Places * We know about the name of the RuneScape planet - Gielinor - but not one for the continent on which which the Player lives. There is none that the general populace uses. The Western Lands might be an appropriate term. * The Crandorian civilisation was founded in the fourth age. It was a nation like Misthlanin, Asgarnia and Kandarin, roughly equal in importance to those three, until it was destroyed. * It's very probable that "Misthalin" was used as the name of a geographic region before the Kingdom of Misthalin took its name. * Regarding actual gameplay: the world that the story takes place in is realistically sized, but the world you play in is a computer game version of that world, sized according to the needs of the gameplay. Organizations/Groups * The White and Temple knights do not have alternate names like the Black Knights have Kinshra. There is a very definite reason for why the Kinshra are named as they are, and the White Knights do not share that reason. * The Moonclan worship Guthix the Allfather. The Lunar Isle people split from the Fremenniks, and each worship Guthix in different ways. * The GWD combatants likely know their respective gods are back, but are continuing the fight to prevent any of the other god wars combatants from getting an upper hand. * The gallows currently seen in West Ardougne were placed there by Mad King Narras Ardignas. Other Specific Individuals * Juna and Fiara are both unique creations. There are not others like them. * Mod Osborne kind of implied Prince Anlaf has been eaten by a troll. * Char is the last remaining member of a long-dead race, and was one of the closest followers of a god who has been largely erased from history. She has some rightful issues. ** DO YOU HEAR THAT, LAST OF HER RACE, OKAY Category:Blog posts Category:What I Learned